Remember Vash
by blue daemon
Summary: What could have happened after Knives was defeated. This is gonna be a long one and I'll be updating often.
1. One Year Later

**Remember Vash**

**By Siona Ward (Blue Daemon)**

Disclaimer: I own nothing…oh woe is me…

This is my first non-humour fic (but I intend to put some laughs in) so please tell me what you think!

  Vash walked. He had been walking for as long as he could remember. In front of him in the distance was a row of low mountains. Behind him was rubble. He remembered nothing before walking. So he walked on. 

   Days and nights passed. He had a large sack slung on his back but he didn't stop to check what was in it. A small black cat trotted faithfully at his side. He never seemed to get tired or hungry so he just kept going. His mind was blank; his memory was in tatters.

   Tama was intrigued. She had never seen trees before. She walked in the new enclosure outside her village and marvelled at the artificial giants. These trees were artificially made but were still plants. They gave out oxygen and bore fruit like any other tree. She glanced up at her mother. She was happier than Tama had ever seen her. The gangs who had been terrorizing their village for months had finally been driven off. Nobody knew why they had suddenly gone but Tama's brother, Daisuke swore that he's seen a man in red firing a gun at them as they ran off. Tama didn't care who did it. Now the village had raised enough money to build the geo-plant for growing trees in and that was all she was concerned with. She was fascinated with the strange, tall things. 

   "Mother", she asked "How do they grow like that?" Her mother smiled.

   "Well Tama, The scientists of this city have found an old ship that crashed not long ago. They say it was called a 'SEED' ship. They found lots of information in the ship on how to grow trees so we're all very happy. You see, long ago, humans went into space and explored the planets, but now we've forgotten how to do that." Tama's eyes went wide, but she said nothing.

   Milly screamed.

   "Ah! Get it off! Get it off!" Meryl came running.

   "What is it Mil- Oh…" she calmly bent down and picked up the baby that was ruthlessly pulling at her hair.

   "Honestly Milly! Can't you even handle the strength of your own son!? He's only a 1 year old!" Milly lowered her head and pouted.

   "He's very strong you know…and he never pulls your hair. You don't know the pain!" Meryl smiled and handed the now laughing baby back to his mother. 

"What would you do without me?" she sighed.

   Meryl left her best friend with her son, Nicholas Jr., as they started a staring contest. 

   Nicholas had been named after his late father. She still couldn't look at the strong young boy without seeing Wolfwood's eyes in him and almost crying. But she was determined not to. She couldn't look upset in front of Milly or they'd all start crying. 

   When Knives had been defeated, Vash had brought him home to the little town that they were working in at the time and intended to help him recover. A few weeks later, however, Knives had disappeared and nobody had heard from this since. Meryl remembered how distracted Vash had been after that and after about a month of pacing, he left as well. Milly had made him promise to come back soon but even now…it was 10 months later.

 Vash had disappeared then and he hadn't returned or even contacted them. Meryl hadn't gone a day without thinking about him; but she was not about to go look for him! He was Nicholas' Godfather too! Oh well, she thought. He may come back some day but if he doesn't she wasn't going to worry (at least not on the outside). 

   Milly and herself had rented a house in Karsted City soon after Vash left. They had been working hard and had enough money for a cute little house and even a small amount put away for Nicholas' education. They had become close friends with Lina and Grandma Sheryl who lived nearby.

   "Meryl! Come here quick!" Milly yelled from the other room. Meryl hurried through.

   "What is it now?" she asked tiredly. Milly showed her a newspaper that Nicholas had torn the corner off. Half of the headline and a small column were lost but there was a detailed sketch of a huge dome in the desert with enormous, healthy looking trees.

   "That's a nice drawing. Why is it in the paper?" 

   "It's not just a drawing silly! They've actually built it! This is a to scale drawing of the geo-plant in Jeneora Rock!"

Milly grabbed the paper in alarm. If they had finally been able to make trees grow like that in this desert environment, then there was hope for them yet.

   "How did they do that?" she breathed.

   "It doesn't say. Just that it's some newly discovered technique to help plants survive."   

   "But how did that small town manage to afford it…?" Milly shrugged in response.

   "Well that doesn't matter. This is amazing! How exciting!" Meryl exclaimed, "We've got to go visit them! Nicholas has never even seen a tree yet!"

   "Yeah!" Meryl agreed, "How 'bout that Nicky-kun? Sounds like fun huh?"

   Nicholas gurgled. Milly put him in his playpen in the corner and went into the kitchen to help Meryl with some lunch. 

   Nicholas dropped the torn off corner of the newspaper. There was a picture of a man with spiky light hair covered in scars at the top of the small column. He was chained up and beaten. This is what the article said:

**Dangerous Criminal Finally Captured!**

The criminal at large, known as Vash the Stampede, AKA The Humanoid Typhoon, who has not been heard from for just under a year, has finally been caught just outside Tonim Town weak and malnourished. He has been accused of several recent acts of destruction within the town, as well as past criminal acts in many towns and cities, and has been taken under the surveillance of a new government group, which calls itself "ROOT". Vash's sentence has not yet been confirmed but we are led to believe that it will be death. We are unable to get any comments from members of ROOT at this time. 

What d'ya think? It's my first Trigun fic so be gentle! Also, sorry the chapter's kinda short but I work better like that. Please review!


	2. On the Move with a Stranger

Remember Vash 

**Chapter 2**

**By Siona Ward (Blue Daemon)**

*So Far = Vash has been walking aimlessly for days remembering nothing. Milly and Meryl are happy living in Karsted City with Milly's son, Nicholas Wolfwood, and an unknown girl, Tama has just been on a visit to the new Bio-Sphere in July City where trees have been grown in the desert.*

**Special mentions – **

Blu = thanks for the tip! I've changed the mistake in chapter 1 now.

Magnet-Rose = I'll be mentioning Knives later on. I intend this story to be a long one.

Thank you! I just love reviews! They make me so happy! ^_^ Anyway…back to the fic!

   Tama was out walking. She often went out alone for walks despite her young age. She liked to think it was because she was so trustworthy, but her brother and mother knew it was a lot safer outside now than it had been for a long time. 

   She liked to climb the large rocks that lay just outside her hometown, giving the town its name. They had always been there, embedded as if hurled with great force from somewhere far away. Tama had thought that it would be fun to climb around here with some friends, but the only other children in the city (since the population was so small) were boys and she had no desire to play with boys; not just yet anyway.

   So she played alone. With some difficulty, she squeezed inside a small crevice that she had found in the rocks years ago. It was wonderfully cool in there and she sometimes found lizards, which she would either play with or take home to eat.

   "Aaah..." she breathed as she settled down. Sometimes, she would stay in here for hours or simply go to sleep for a while, but for today, she decided she would do some drawings. She dug around for the stick of blackened wood she used for this and found it in the corner under some sand. She started to happily scribble on the walls.

   There was a sound. An unusual sound. Not very loud at first, but it was so rare to hear anything out here that she listened close. It got louder. It was a rumbling, dirty noise. Tama was scared.

   "Ok, Ok. Just keep quiet and they won't see you." She whispered to herself. She had no idea who 'they' were but she had heard enough stories about the gangers who had previously ruined their town to be afraid. 

   As they came closer, she could make out their hazy figures through the crack. There were several men on bikes and as they approached, she could see they were chasing something. It was a man! Tama could make out a tall man in red running like a maniac from five bikers, and she knew he wouldn't be able to out-run them for long. Suddenly, he threw himself behind a rock nearby and grabbed something too small to see. Then there were gunshots. Five gunshots came from the man in red. A second later Tama heard all five of the bikers groan or scream and she could just see them all grab their left arms. This man had managed to shoot all five in the same place! It was quite comical from where Tama was sitting but she didn't forget the dangerous position she was in. She was sure that this was the man that Daisuke had seen chasing them away the first time. 

   The bikers drove away, but Tama was pretty sure that they would be back. The man fell back against the rock, obviously exhausted. Tama, with a sudden rush of courage, crept out from her hiding place and said,

    "E-excuse me, are you alright?" The man's head snapped around to look at her. She couldn't help but notice that he was still holding the revolver. There would be one bullet left…

   The man grinned.

   "Hello! Yeah, I'm alright. Do you think you could help me back to somewhere with food? I think one of those guys shot me." Tama was confused by his careless attitude, but he put the gun away so she hurried over to help.

   "I saw what you did back there…" she mumbled, "That was amazing! You were here before weren't you? My brother saw you when you chased…" She trailed off. The man had stood up and wasn't listening. He was staring at the town behind Tama.

   "I've never been here before." He stated. His expression suddenly looked very serious and she didn't contradict him.

   "Who are you?" she asked quietly. He didn't answer for a while.

   "I think my name is Vash the Stampede. At least…" he pulled out a poster from a concealed pocket, "That's what this says." It was the wanted posters that Tama had seen all her life. It was the same man. She wondered why she hadn't recognised him. Perhaps it was because he was grinning madly in the picture with a doughnut stuffed in his mouth…

   Without contemplating what the rest of the town people would think of this stranger, she helped him limp back to her house.

   Nicholas was crying. He apparently hated sand-steamers. Milly was exhausted from this 4-hour journey and her son had barely been quiet the entire way.

   "Please…" she begged, "Just be quiet…Or go to sleep. Just for a little while…Look, I brought you some biscuits." He smacked the offered biscuits away and carried on bawling.

   "Don't worry, Milly." Meryl comforted her, "We're nearly there."

   They had got some last minute tickets for Jeneora Rock the previous day and they planned to stay at an inn for a few days whilst visiting the geo-plant.

   "Look Milly! There they are!" Meryl pointed out the window at the horizon. 

   From where they were they could make out the town buildings in the distance and in front of them, they could see a handful of bright green trees under a large, transparent dome.

   "Wow!" Milly's eyes went wide. Nicholas stopped crying to see what was so interesting.

   As the sand-steamer finally slowed, Meryl saw a small crowd in the town. They were surrounding two people and didn't look happy. 'It's none of my business' she thought, and thought nothing of it. The trio of travellers collected their luggage with the help of a friendly passenger and stepped on solid ground once more.

Did'ya like? I know not a lot happened this chapter but there's more excitement to come, don't worry! Please review!


	3. Found

Remember Vash Chapter 3

By Siona Ward  (Blue Daemon)

I did this one as quick as I could (hopefully) without ruining the story. Just For You! See what you make me do!? Well whatever. I like all them pretty reviews! Enjoy some more Trigunny goodness! ^_^

   "How did you come to be here?" Tama enquired to the apparently gentleman-like criminal before her.

   "I walked." He replied with a smile. Tama sweat-dropped. 

    "You know what I mean!"

   "Ok…I remember being captured from…somewhere. My memory's all hazy. If it weren't for that poster, I wouldn't even know my name. I do remember escaping though. Some strange people were experimenting on me at some point. I think it was a while ago. It could have been months ago I suppose…So one day I escaped."

    "Is that why those bikers were chasing you?"

   "I guess that would make sense." Vash ate another doughnut. He had made a quick detour before they had reached Tama's home to buy a large supply of them from a stall. Tama's mother and brother were out shopping and would be home soon. Tama hadn't decided to hide Vash or not…but where could you hide a full-grown man in a small house? Vash continued his story,

   "I was walking for a long time before those guys found me. I really wish I didn't have to shoot them…Oh, these doughnuts are yummy!"

   Tama was slightly unimpressed with this guy. She had expected him to be daring and heroic, but he was a bit of an idiot. She didn't mind too much though. She found him kinda sweet; it was the only adult she knew that she could speak casually to. He didn't mind talking normally to a child, and she respected that.

   "I seem to be remembering more than I did before though. I'm pretty sure this amnesia is only temporary." He suddenly got up and knelt down to look her in the eyes, "Thank you, Tama. You're the first person I've spoken to in all my memory!" he smiled at this, and then stood up once more to leave.

   "Please don't go, Vash!" Tama called, "Can't you stay here and be my friend?" Vash smiled a wonderful, caring smile. He seemed to be good at that.

   "Come on then, squirt. Show me out of this town." Tama grinned and grabbed his hand as she led him out of the house. As they walked out of the doorway, they were confronted by Tama's mother and Daisuke. He mother gasped at the strange man.

   "Who are you? Get out! Tama! Come here!"

   "Mum! It's alright!" Tama explained, "This is Vash. He just got a bit lost and h-"

   "Vash!? Daisuke, call the sheriff! Tama, come here now!" 

   Vash was confused. Was he really such a horrible criminal to strike such fear at the mention of his name? He decided that this woman would not be persuaded to calm down and instead slipped out of the door for a quick exit. He was too late. There was already a crowd gathering at the shouts of Tama's mother outside the door. He was surrounded.

   "It's the Humanoid Typhoon!" cried a man.

   "Lock him up and claim the reward!" a drunken young man called.

   'Bugger.' thought Vash. 

   The crowd grew. Several men were grabbing his arms to restrain him. There was no way he could simply run now. Tama was desperately trying to calm down her mother and explain the situation, but her voice was not heard. 

   It looked like their sheriff was coming. Vash felt so confused and frustrated; it was almost like he was a new, innocent person who had taken the body of a criminal, and now he was being captured for crimes he couldn't remember committing. He clenched his teeth at the unfairness of it all, and was about to shove his way through to freedom, when a voice cut above the taunting crowd.

   "Leave him alone! Out of my way!" it was a woman, and by the way the crowd immediately subsided, a very dominating woman. Then Vash saw her. She was fairly young and petite with short hair and a tall companion followed her holding a baby. A flash of a recognition told him he may have formerly known these women but try as he might, he couldn't even get a name from his memory.

   "Vash! It's us!" the larger woman called, dragging him from the crowd. "Let's get out of here!"

   The first woman with dark hair seemed to be negotiating with the sheriff whilst they slipped away from the crowd.

   "Alright." Relented the sheriff, a tall man with a beard. "You say he'll cause us no harm, and I know you've been with him before. I give you 12 hours and then you must be gone from here!"

   "Thank you so much." Replied the dark-haired woman, looking even smaller compared to the large man. "I promise everything will be fine."

   The crowd, looking rather disappointed, now dispersed. Vash was about to thank these helpful women when the woman holding the baby threw her arms around him, nearly dropping the boy in the process.

   "Oh Vash! We were so worried about you! Where have you been!?"

   Vash didn't know what to say.

   Meryl didn't know what to say. 

   The four were sitting under the windmill overlooking the town that Tama had shown them, away from the accusing eyes of the villagers. Vash had told them his story. 'Memory loss?' she thought. This was just too strange. Milly looked close to tears. Nicholas was sleeping.

   "So you really don't remember us?" Milly asked sounding hurt.

   "You make it sound like it's my fault!" Vash cried. "And no. I can't remember you. I'm sorry." Meryl tried to make sense of all this.

   "So all you _can_ remember is being experimented on by _some_one _some_where and then escaping and coming here. And you don't know how long you've been walking and subsequently how far away the place you were is?" Vash took a while to understand this before answering,

   "Yes." Feeling awkward, he put a hand behind his head, "So…what have you guys been up to?"

   The insurance workers sweat-dropped. Milly decided to humour him.

   "Well, (I'm Milly if you don't remember) after you defeated your evil twin brother Knives, you brought him back to the town where we you to care for him until he got better, which was a silly thing to do since he tried to kill you…and us, and…his men…killed…" she couldn't say her father of her son's name. Meryl continued while she held back tears.

   "And then, (Oh and I'm Meryl) some weeks later Knives escaped and then a little while after that you got all jumpy and went too. Since then, we moved to Karsted City near Lina and Grandma Sheryl. You didn't tell us where you were going or when you'd be back, just that you had something to do."

  "And that sounded very suspicious!" interrupted Milly, suddenly feeling better. "You couldn't just leave us with no information! You even left before you saw Nicky!" she held up her son proudly as he vomited everywhere.

   "Oh man!" she moaned as she grabbed a cloth from her bag. Meryl took Nicholas and sat him down.

   Vash smiled at the baby boy. He too held a glimmer of a memory that he just couldn't tap. 

   "Can you…" he mumbled. Milly looked up. "Can you two-uh three help me get my memory back? You know more than me." Meryl smiled almost sadly.

   "Of course we'll help you. We're friends."

   "But first!" cried Milly, "We have to go visit the geo-plant! We've got to leave by tonight so this is our last chance remember?"

More tense moments to cone soon! And hopefully a bit of actual plot too! ^_^ Please review!


	4. Knives appears!

Remember Vash Chapter 4 - 

**By Siona Ward (Blue Daemon)**

I finally wrote about Knives in this chapter for all you evil-twin fans!

Oh and a special hug for Magnet-Rose for your continued reviews! ^_^

(IMPORTANT! Just so you know, this part is a flashback to the time just after the showdown with Knives and after Vash took Knives home to care for him. ^_^ I just like to keep you on your toes!)

   It was noon. After nearly a day of continuous running, Knives finally collapsed in the shade of a cliff. He had awoken the previous day in a bed listening to the voices of his hated brother and two humans in the next room. He couldn't believe that Vash was so stupid as to let him live. He would regret it, but first Knives had to get out of there. He could never allow himself to be looked after like a weak human. He had slipped away soon after waking up. 

   Feeling frustrated at being beaten even though he was weak, he ran from the house. Sitting now, and getting his breath back, he cleared his thoughts. He had been beaten once yes, but letting him live was Vash's biggest mistake. This time there would be no elaborate plan or men doing his dirty work. This time he would simply kill Vash straight on, and then deal with exterminating the humans. He allowed himself a smile at this happy thought and with a slight groan, got up and started to explore his surroundings. He appeared to be somewhere outside New Oregon. 

   As he walked slowly around the base of the cliff, forcing his body to regenerate further as he did so, he felt something different. He could sense some technology nearby. Impressive, lost technology. Suddenly wondering why he hadn't known about this before, he located the technology source and followed his senses.

   He found a space ship.

   A lot of it was buried in the rock hard sand, but the tops of the letters SEED were clearly written in bold along its hull. 

   "I destroyed all of these…" Knives mused as he gazed, shocked, at this unlikely discovery. He had made sure all the SEED vessels exploded when he was a boy. Forcing open a partially buried hatch, he decided to investigate.

   "Where are we going?" whined a man, reluctantly following another outside New Oregon. His name was Siros and the man he followed was a good friend of his called Irinoep. 

   "I heard something. Now come on." replied Irinoep impatiently.

   "I always hear things. That doesn't mean I drag my friends out of town to investigate…"

   "Oh let it go. It was a strange noise ok? Like a bang or a yell…"

   "This had better be good…I've got things to do you know." The duo continued up the hillside outside their town. They headed towards the great metal mound that their people had purposefully avoided for years.

   Knives gazed amazedly at his discovery. He was looking at an old disused screen, which had just enough power to display all it knew to him. It had a lot to tell. 

   "-.//Experiments on twin subjects V and K confirm suspicions. DNA structure different. Extra gene allows regeneration, extended longevity, enhanced senses. Still investigating. Proceding to isolating gene. Adding to plant structure.//

   -.//Conclusive evidence from plants. Surviving high temps. Stronger. Experiment gene on human pending…// "

   Knives had read enough. He never trusted that crew aboard his SEED ship, but he never knew that they were actually experimenting on him and his brother. He let out a cry of anger at letting them do this to him and smashed half of the monitor with a fist. Taking a deep breath he calmed down. He had after all killed all of them and thus extracted his revenge. 'Now,' he thought, 'I can certainly use this to my advantage…' He continued to read all the information the ship contained and memorised all of it.

   Before long, he was set in this task and so was annoyed when two humans peering in at him curiously disturbed him. 

   "Leave" he demanded simply, his eyes not leaving the flickering monitor. 

   "Ah…" mumbled one, "are you alright? We heard a yell…"

   Just as Knives was about to shoot these two distractions, he had an idea. He turned around and smiled at them.

   "Yes, I'm fine. Listen. I've just had an amazing discovery here that could make trees grow in the desert." The two humans looked doubtful at this but slightly nervous in such unfamiliar surroundings.

   "How? How can we do that?" asked the second, genuinely intrigued. Knives stared at them intently.

   "Will you help me achieve this? I can't do it alone and I need you to trust and obey me."

   The two men were startled at this response and said nothing.

   "If you refuse this of course…" Knives continued, bringing out his gun, "I will have to murder you and your families. Understand?"

   This seemed to motivate the humans. They both nodded vigorously. 

   "Oh good!" exclaimed Knives putting the gun away. "We'll begin at once. I will be summoning Vash the Stampede here now. You'll find him easily enough that way. When you find him bring him here. We're going to do a little experiment."

   "V-Vash the Stampede??" stuttered the first man, Siros, "We could never catch him! Uh - sir! We aren't fighters!"

   "You don't need to be. He'll be weak and won't make a fuss. If he does, just tell him his brother's waiting. Go. Now." They left. 

   "Try heading west for a start!" Knives called after them, "And bring me all the scientists from your city whilst you're at it!" This was going to be fun. He got back to reading the ship's logs and records.

   The SEED ship, 1,045/2,664, Knives learned, had apparently taken the wrong course when leaving the planet and been lost from the fleet. It never found the rest of the ships but managed to crash land back on the planet some months later as an attempt to save the crew from being lost in deep space forever. It had been hiding here for several years. The local people were of course too scared to even look directly at it, so it was practically untouched since it landed.

   After exploring what was left of the ship, Knives found almost half of the ship crushed from the impact, the crew and 'sleepers' would have died instantly, but there was still power and enough space to stay here for a while. He repaired some parts to provide lighting and prepared a makeshift operating-table for his brother.

   When Vash sensed a summoning from his brother, he was tense. He couldn't easily ignore that demand constantly in his brain but he didn't want to find Knives yet. They were both still weak and he knew that a confrontation now would end in fighting. 

   He thought it was over. He wanted it to be over. He had never known what he would do with Knives after their fight. He would never kill him, but he had to do something about his destructive twin before more lives were lost. After week of pacing around the house restlessly, he decided to leave. Just as he was about to, Meryl caught him.

   "Where are you going? It's the middle of the night!" she hissed. Vash looked at her seriously. It was so rare a thing that Meryl was slightly worried.

   "I need to go to Knives. I have to find him."

   "No Vash, please." Meryl grabbed his arm, "It's over now right? You need to stay with us and live a life now. Milly's pregnant you know? It's Mr Wolfwood' child! You must stay!"

   "I'm sorry." Was all that Vash said as he left carrying his big sack of a bag on his shoulder.

Woo! I finally got round to finishing another chapter! I'm enjoying this story at the mo so I'll be writing more often. Please review - they keep me happy! Bai!


	5. Plans in motion

Remember Vash Chapter 5 

**By Siona Ward (Blue Daemon)**

A thank you to Magnet-Rose for your continued support and everyone else who reviewed! ^_^

This chapter is still set in the past as a sort-of flashback carrying straight on from chapter 4. Just so you know.

~~*~~

   Knives smiled. It had worked. 

   Vash was lying unconscious on the mound representing a bed in the battered wreckage of the SEED ship. He had come rather unwillingly to Knives' summons but had arrived several days before without resisting. His 'helpers', Siros and Irinoep had brought in Vash amazed at what they had single-handedly been able to do. 'Nobody else has captured Vash before…' they both thought proudly.

   Knives let them think what they wanted. They were reliable and that was all that was required of them, for the time being. Now they were sitting in the corner of the cramped ship, staring wildly at the plant that had grown half the height of a man overnight.

   "I told you it would work." Knives couldn't help stating as he smirked at their amusing faces. He flicked a small knife from his work area and gripped it with a triumphant smile.

   All he had needed to do was remove the selected gene from a sample of Vash's tissue, with the help of the ship's equipment, and insert it into the DNA of a normal seed. This particular seed had accepted the gene immediately and had started growing at once needing hardly any water and no soil.

   "Here." Knives said, knife still in his hand, as he passed the surprisingly heavy plant to Irinoep, "Take this and plant it somewhere. Make sure it is unharmed."

   His hand holding the knife snagged Irinoep's arm as he did so, drawing blood. 

   "Ah!" he cried in alarm, almost dropping the plant. Knives said nothing, but smiled his apology. The two men went to complete their task. Knives turned to his twin.

   "Now, what to do with you…I can't simply kill you, I'll be needing you later now. I can certainly clear up those ugly marks for you though brother."

   He snatched a syringe from close by and injected a pale green substance into Vash's arm. He didn't twitch.

   "Let's just say you owe me one. Though you probably won't remember." He said with another of his common smirks. He was thoroughly enjoying himself today. "I'll just be needing some backup samples of tissue and…" After carefully placing his current blade to one side, he roughly hacked a small chunk of flesh from Vash's forearm with a fresh one.

   "We're done! See you later, Vash The Stampede!" and with that, Knives unstrapped Vash from the uncomfortable bed and threw him outside. He would let those two humans deal with him later. He wouldn't wake for hours, and he was taking up too much room anyway.

~~*~~

   "Why are we taking this thing all the way to Jeneora Rock!?" cried Siros, "Let's leave it in our New Oregon! The tourism alone could help us no end!" 

   "Listen." hissed Irinoep, demanding attention, "I've been thinking. Our town would benefit from this beauty yes, but you don't think Mr Knives is gonna stop at one do you?" he didn't wait for an answer, "He's gonna make loads of these things! We'll get more for our town, I'm sure. Don't worry."

   "But why Jeneora?" Siros asked again. He was confused.

   "I got a friend up there. He's in high authority, close to the sheriff, and best of all, he can hardly count! I know he'll just love this plant as much as we do, and he'll be so shocked he won't care what the price is!"

   Now Siros understood, "You mean get ourselves a little profit in the deal eh? I'm in! To Jeneora Rock!"

~~*~~

   Even standing on tiptoe, Tama couldn't see over the gasping crowd. All she knew was that some strangers had just arrived and brought something amazing with them; but nobody would tell her what it was! She tugged at her mothers arm, and was promptly lifted up above the crowds onto her mother's shoulders. She gasped with them.

   "It's beautiful!" she exclaimed, she had seen plants before in pictures, and on that one time with her visit to New Arcadia when her family had visited that friendly old couple with all the trees…But this plant, no, this tree was so healthy looking, so green, Tama couldn't explain why it made her feel so moved. She wanted to touch it, but so, she realized, did everybody else in the crowd so she would have to wait. 

   "Let us have it!" cried a random person from the crowd.

   "We'll pay anything!" yelled another near the front of the mob. The two man struggling to hold the thing up were smiling at each other.

   "We're quite happy to sell it," said the first, his voice loud so that everyone could hear, "But as it's such a rare beauty, not for less than $$2 billion." Tama heard some sharp intakes of breath at the amount. She knew they were not a rich town, and that 2 billion was an awful lot of money. She hoped with all her might that the tree wouldn't go away…

   There was some whispering, some arguing back and forth but the people of Jeneora Rock saw it as a blessing and were willing to part with all their savings and some borrowed money to claim the spectacular find as their own. They paid the men in full, with a bit of protestation from some and were left with the tree. It was planted, after a long time digging, in the rock hard earth at one side of the town where there was a clearing. Tama's mother sighed happily.

   "This means a lot to us, you know.  This is the end of our hard times, Tama dear. Don't forget that." She took her daughter's hand and reluctantly left the tree to go home.

   "Can I see it tomorrow?" Tama asked quietly. Her mother chuckled,

   "Of course Tama! We can all see it whenever we want to now. It's ours."

As they walked happily back to their home, neither Tama, nor her mother had any idea that they would rue those words.

~~*~~

   Knives was getting irritated. After two days, the word of new plants had spread like the wind. There they all were now, sheriffs, leaders, ordinary men and women standing, sitting, shouting, whining outside his ship. They were all practically begging for more plants.

   "Well, those two goons work fast; fortunately so do I." He picked up a bag of seeds. They had already been grown from two parent plants that he treated. They were already starting to grow with little green shoots sprouting everywhere, poking through the fabric of the bag. He turned and left the room to face the crowd.

   "We'll give you anything!" cried a rather fat man in an old, brown leather jacket. Knives loathed these filthy, greedy creatures. But he decided to have some fun with them however. He tossed the bag of precious seedlings into the air, watched their faces light up with hope and every eye staring, fixated, and then hope turned to anger as they fought each other fiercely for the seeds. 

   Smiling, Knives stood watching as the many hands of his hated enemy snatched every last seed from sight and left like wild animals coveting a large kill. Everything was coming together. The seeds would grow quickly, and easily reproduce sprouting more and more trees. Knives' plan was at last in motion.


End file.
